Solo Diving Certifications
By Bret Gilliam - 3/16/01
Technical Diving Editor and CEO
Technical Diving International
Are we hypocrites, or just following established guidelines established by reasonable people to protect our clients??
The April 2001 issue of Rodale's Scuba Diving has numerous articles acknowledging the practice and practicality of Solo Diving. I'm going to enter the articles and acknowledge the authors of each (rather than plagiarize these good peoples work)
Let's welcome the new millennium by finally ending the absurd controversy over solo diving and grant certification status to experienced divers through formalized process.
Codifying solo-diving with practical standards makes sense for two reasons: First, divers are who currently diving independently without formal training will be encouraged to receive the instruction they need. Second, the buddy system is deeply flawed. It fosters dependent behavior in many divers and is a proven not to enhance safety. In fact, it may do just the opposite for many divers forced into the role of buddy.
Buddy Diving: A Brief History
Diving has changed significantly since the first YMCA certification courses were offered in the 1950s. Back then, dive training was typically conducted by water-safety professionals who based scuba curricula on their prior experience. The buddy system was essentially borrowed from swimming and lifeguard training. In entry-level scuba, the buddy system can make a lot of sense. Two divers can help each other gear up, conduct buddy checks, perform cooperative tasks or simply provide moral support. All this is great so long as a dependent relationship doesn't develop for the weaker member of the team.
A Brief Farewell
However, with experience, divers tend to become more focused on personal dive goals and, unless the buddy teams are well-matched with common interests, the system becomes a burden. Eventually, most who stay in the sport will reach a level where genuine independence is desired except in special circumstances. If they have been trained properly to assess risk and to practice self-reliant skills, there is simply no valid reason to compel their allegiance to the buddy system if it no longer suits their needs.
A Dirty Secret
In fact, divers who zealously practice buddy diving by the book are usually relatively new divers who are at the least equipped to render meaningful assistance without endangering themselves. Perhaps more importantly, reliance on the buddy system may actually foster dangerous complacency and inattention to detail in these divers. Even casual observation on the deck of any dive boat would suggest that very few divers pay the kind of attention to their gear, site conditions, dive plan, and navigational requirements the way they should, especially if they were suddenly forced to be self-reliant.
The Legal Lunacy
Let's consider another twist that occurs daily: being assigned a buddy you don't know or don't want. It's a terrible intrusion on an individual's right to make an informed decision, and potentially on his right to dive, to force him to assume the burden of an irresponsible or dangerous buddy. Remember, recent court decisions have reinforced the notion that you have an implied legal responsibility to a diving buddy. Do you want to be sued because some bozo you met two minutes before the dive decides to take a one-way trip over a wall or has a coronary swimming back to the boat?
The "Helper" Myth
Besides being forced to by operators, perhaps the only reason many divers remain tethered to the buddy system is the "it's safer!" claim: Two divers can help each other in the event of injury, panic, or equipment failure. Unfortunately, dive accident statistics and actual reports tell a much different story. In reality, buddy partnerships fail more often than they succeed. The reasons: Buddy diving encourages dominant and passive roles, one diver's ability to help the other is negated by separation or inattention, and few buddies have the actual experience or skills to assist another diver in the sudden onset of equipment failure, panic, or an out-of-air situation.
Solo Certification: To the Rescue
If you conclude, as I do, that the increased training and skills required for independent diving will make you safer than the buddy system poorly practiced, then what would such a certification consist of? My modest proposal: A training program that builds independent skills and establishes your self-reliance as a diver:
Prerequisites
advanced diver certification
minimum of 100 logged dives
approved diving physical examination
Required Curriculum
Enroll with the good folks at www.AtlantisDivers.com ( this is my quote )
"Solo diving will not be for everyone, but for many it will be liberating, allowing a more fulfilling experience or our sport."
With these skill areas practiced to proficiency, qualified scuba divers can be certified as solo divers and pursue independent activities. Such a certification allows an effective assumption of risk by the solo diver who can now stipulate on a waiver release of liability that he accepts the legal responsibility for his solo diving and has been formally credentialed by a training agency. This is exactly the legal "out" that most operators want in order to allow solo diving from resorts or live-aboards and to provide a legal posture that can be defended.
Solo diving will not be for everyone, but for many it will be liberating, allowing a more fulfilling experience of our sport. More importantly, we can start treating divers like adults who can make their own decisions with no more pious rules that we all know are ignored as often as observed, and for good reason.
New "Solo Diver" Certification
An interview with Brian Carney
Training manager - Scuba Diving International
Rodale's Scuba Diving:
Why is SDI offering a Solo Diver C-card? Aren't you a little ahead of the curve on this one?
Brian Carney:
Maybe. But it's not an unfamiliar position. We were the first to certify 10-year-olds and require open-water students to have computers. But our instructors think we're a little behind the curve.
RSD:
How so?
Carney:
They've been asking for it for some time. Since most of our instructors are also TDI (Technical Diving International) instructors, they deal with experienced divers who want to walk on a boat, shoe a Solo Diver ID, and not be bound to another diver they don't know and who may be a danger to them. If they're going to do it, we want to make sure they're prepared and qualified to do it safely.
RSD:
Speaking of danger, you're going to be accused of getting people killed, ruining the sport's popular image and returning us to the bad old days of macho daredevils. How will you respond?
Carney:
By saying that there are pros and cons to buddy diving and to solo diving. The key is to be rigorously trained, confident, and experienced, whether it's in the buddy system or as an independent diver. Properly trained and executed, both systems can be safe. Our main concern is that there are literally thousands of divers going solo right now who lack the requisite training t do so safely. They're accidents waiting to happen. If they're going to do it, we want to make sure they're prepared and qualified to do it safely. We think it's time some agency stepped up to the plate and made a commitment to it for everyone's sake.
RSD:
This sounds familiar. I remember some concerns about Nitrox ...
Carney:
... and deep diving and dive computers before that BCs before that. It's been a constant theme: certification agencies resist change, fail to provide updated training, and divers pay the price. That's one of the reasons SDI/TDI was founded: to provide what other agencies refused to.
RSD:
You and I are talking in January 2001. When do you expect the new certification to be available?
Carney:
In time for the spring season, late March, early April. Divers can simply go to any dive store affiliated with SDI/TDI or to our website: www.tdisdi.com
Mike Ball Dive Expeditions: Solo Diving in Action
Things are always a bit different Down Under. With Australia's premier dive live-aboard company, Mike Ball Dive Expeditions, going solo is "no problem, mate" with four big ifs:
- If you have the experience and age
You must be 21 with proof of a minimum of 100 dives, five in the last year. Those younger than 21 must have divemaster rating or higher. - If you have the right equipment
Including a fully redundant air system with a minimum of six cubic feet of air; a "Dive Alert" horn or equivalent; safety sausage; dive light; dive knife; compass. - If you successfully demonstrate independent diver skills
Surface snorkel 100 meters in full scuba gear; use safety sausage and air horn; navigate 100 meter course with 75 percent accuracy; hover at 15 feet for 3 minutes and clear flooded mask; ascend normally with redundant air supply. - If you follow safe dive procedures on each dive
Including dive planning and adherence to the plan, adequate safety stops, ascent rates, hydration, rest, etc.
reproduced from "http://atlantisdivers.com/Editorials.html